When a boat crashes into a giant sea turtle, the survivors make their home on its back, but they miss their own families, so they sail off again, and turtle is lonely...until they return, with families in tow!
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Re-read March 2023 ( )

I personally did not like this book. I had kind of judged a book by its cover and chose this book because I liked the illustrations. I think that this book is targeted for kindergarten or first grade students because the sentences were simple and the font was large.

So again, I initially chose this book because I liked the illustrations. Based on the front cover I thought maybe it was about a town who had settled down unknowingly on a huge turtle. Not what it was about. It was a really weird story, the title didn’t seem fitting. After reading some, I was under the impression it would be about cooperation and working together. Each animal had a special skill, “Owl could knit, Bear could build, Frog could cook, and Cat could draw”. So when they each went to work on their own skill, they were able to help each other. But then the story wasn’t about cooperation and teamwork anymore, it was about friendship in a way. Turtle thought they would never leave him. “’We miss our families,’ Frog said one day. I didn’t understand. Wasn’t I their family? ‘We have to go home,’ Bear added. But wasn’t I their home?” So they all left him and he got lonely again. But then they all came back with their families and more giant turtles? The story felt all over the place. I couldn’t really pick out a central message, I think the closest I could come up with could be that “friends make all the difference”, but that’s only because it’s written on the back cover. I can kind of understand where the author was trying to show how important friends can be, but I didn’t feel like it came across well in the book. ( )

This story is about a giant turtle who lives alone in the middle of the ocean. The turtle often gets lonely and is afraid he will be alone forever. The central message of this story is good things come to those who wait. One day, there is a shipwreck and four animals wash up on the giant turtle. They live there for awhile before they decide to go back home. The giant turtle is sad when his friends leave and decides he will be alone forever. To his delight, the four animals return to the giant turtle and bring their families and friends with them. The giant turtle becomes their permanent home and he no longer has to fear the thought of being alone forever. ( )

A lonely big turtle in a big ocean finds some friends. ( )

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